Craft Category: Artifacts

Instructional Modifications for English Learners at Lindsay

Teacher Marla Earnest explains how she modifies learning activities to support English language learners.

Marla-Earnest.jpg#asset:1295

Transcript: Marla Earnest: It depends on the kid. It depends on what level they’re working on. But let’s take a newcomer, for example, a learner that’s been here less than a year. What they would do is we would have a whole class lesson that day which usually revolves around discussion so that they’re using language, we’re building background knowledge and vocabulary. And then having some kind of experience with that. It might be a small group table talk where they’re discussing a particular cultural item that we learned about that day. And then they would work on grammar. We use IXL for grammar. I’m able to choose a level that’s appropriate for them so even though that program might say it’s a second grade level it might be that that particular lesson in IXL meets the emerging standard for ELD. So we choose what lesson they’re going to do based on that. They also will do some sort of writing so that we’re practicing the language and the vocabulary and they can do that in their personalized time. The writing is personalized to them. We use a program called Write to Learn. But Write to Learn also really heavily depends on the learning facilitator to help the learner meet what they need to meet. We have rubrics that we use. They are district rubrics designed for each level of ELD competency. So as they’re writing they have the rubric and I’m able to give them feedback based on that rubric. They give each other feedback; there’s some peer feedback in there as well.

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Feedback Modifications for English Learners at Lindsay

Teacher Marla Earnest explains how she provides feedback within a performance based system for English language learners.

Marla-Earnest.jpg#asset:1295

Transcript: Marla Earnest: In ELD it looks a little bit different because when they score based on that rubric they’re not going to see like a traditional class here in our school they’re not going to see a one, two, three or four on their report card; they’re going to see emerging, expanding, bridging. They’re going to see their level of language acquisition. So in order to get a four then they could actually take that learning and take it out to the real world. So if they were presenting let’s say on careers they might share that career information with one of our lower grades with one of our sister schools like Kennedy. And they might go and talk to kids about, “So how do you figure out what your perfect career is?” That’s how they would get a four. But on the report card it’s still going to show here’s the level of language I’m using. For us a three is, “Hey, I have the complex knowledge.” But because ELD is language acquisition we’re not looking at complex knowledge versus simple knowledge. We’re not looking at twos and threes. What we’re looking at for proficiency is where are you falling on this continuum of language acquisition? Some kids have some of their standards; they’re showing emerging as their language acquisition. And then some of their standards are all the way at bridging. It depends on where their gaps in their language are. A lot of our kids speak English really, really well, but they’re not yet fluent in reading and writing, so they may be performing at an emerging level. So my job is is if you’re at the emerging level I need to move you up to the expanding level. So I’m giving them strategies to do that.

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Different Learning Choices Students Make at Lindsay

Brandy Quintero, a teacher at Lindsay, explains how students have choice over when to take an assessment as well as which content areas to tackle.

Brandi-Quintero.jpg#asset:1322

Transcript: Brandy Quintero: So students can come in here. And these are all the standards that are going to be covered in 9B. So a student can go in here and say, “You know what; I think I already know this particular standard. I’m going to just like go through and do it.” And they thought like the level of knowledge in here. […] Once they feel like, “Hey, I’ll do the Learning Accelerator, I’m good,” then they can take the district’s proficiency test and they could be done with that learning target. And so that’s one option of student voice and choice. We also have like – it’s going to look a little different. So when you open up ERWC Module 1, we’re going to have the regular English 9 Module 1, and then we’re going to have Academy of Engineering’s Module 1 and Academy of Health Science Module 1. Now you’re still going to have to read a test and a take it. You’re still going to have to follow the general steps of it. But because AOE needs to be able to focus on the engineering, their articles are going to be different. Their project choices are going to be different.

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Romeo and Juliet: Leveled Readings

This is an example of a playlist of different levels of a reading. Students can select traditional or nontraditional formats, such as annotated or graphic texts, as well as a Spanish version.

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Student Choice Over How to Demonstrate Mastery at Lindsay

A student explains how he decided to choose and execute against his own “level four” mastery demonstration.

Marco-Lopez.jpg#asset:1307

Transcript:

Marco Lopez: She gave us an opportunity for a Level Four, but a Level Four seemed kind of – I didn’t really like it. We do this thing called IXL and there’s like lessons on there, and it teaches us different ways to use like colons and semicolons and stuff like that. So she told us that if we could use all them correctly and incorporate them in our writing, that it could be a Level Four for grammar. And so I did that, and she said that I did an excellent job in that. So I got a Level Four in grammar. And then on theme I also got a four for that with my essay.
Interviewer: So you did an assignment that was different from the original one assigned, but it’s still totally showed that –
Student: Yeah, it still kind of referred the things it would have counted for.
Interviewer: You were excellent at all those learning targets?
Student: Yeah.

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Student Choice of Mastery Projects at Lindsay

Teacher Marla Earnest explains how students get choice over how to demonstrate higher levels of mastery.

Marla-Earnest.jpg#asset:1295

Transcript: Marla Earnest: […] they get to choose. There’s a lot of voice and choice, so within a class period you might see kids presenting on what career they want to have. You might see kids presenting on an area, geographic area that they’ve studied. You might see them presenting on something they learned in history, so they might be doing a time period. But the 3V is always application.

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Choosing to Demonstrate Advanced Knowledge at Lindsay

Teacher Marla Earnest explains how students who achieve proficiency on a standard can choose to demonstrate deeper mastery.

Marla-Earnest.jpg#asset:1295

Transcript: Marla Earnest: The fours are always student choice. If they want to show that they have advanced knowledge of this particular topic that’s a voice and choice issue because what we want is we want proficiency in all of our learners. Yes, we want them being pushed to the advanced, but it’s not my choice. I offer them that level four. And honestly, we have more and more learners wanting that level four, even in our English language classes. They want to show, “Hey, I got this. I’m advanced. Let me show you.”

Read More »
August 10, 2016

Personalized Learning Time at Lindsay

Teacher Marla Earnest explains how students have choice over what to work on and who to work with during Personalized Learning Time.

Marla-Earnest.jpg#asset:1295

Transcript: Marla Earnest: […] we have personalized learning time. And during that time kids are able to work on what they need to work on, on where they know they have work to do. So that might be writing time, you might have a group of kids working on grammar. You might have a group of kids working on a slide show that they’re going to present. It’s very personalized at that time. During that time kids can work on their own, with a partner, they will often work in a small group. The classroom is set up for small group conversations. But you’ll a lot of times see kids like, “I need to do my writing,” and they’ll just go and work on their writing on their own. So it flows. It’s not, okay, everybody’s doing silent, personalized quiet time now. It’s a flow in the classroom so that kids are getting what they need.

Read More »
August 10, 2016
Scroll to Top